Christians Unite for Strike's End
Writers and other Hollywood professionals gather weekly to pray for an end to the writer's strike, which is hurting many people financially, emotionally, and spiritually.
by Brett McCracken | posted 2/05/2008
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Editor's note: Just one week after we posted the following story, writers voted to end their strike and return to work.
Everyone in Hollywood is ready for the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) to end its lengthy, debilitating strike. The strike has brought the film and television industry to a standstill, cost thousands of jobs and over $1 billion in total economic productivity, and angered fans across the world now deprived of their favorite television shows.
But beyond the obvious, headline-grabbing impacts, there is an even greater, more crippling effect on the average person in L.A. Many people (and not just the 12,000 striking writers) are suffering financially, emotionally, even spiritually from the effects of the strike, and Hollywood Christians are responding with care and prayer.
Earlier this month, Kim Dorr, Associate Pastor for Entertainment Ministries at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, joined up with an interdenominational coalition of Los Angeles-based Christian entertainment professionals to sponsor weekly prayer and fellowship gatherings as long as the strike is going on. Dorr, who also runs the Defining Artists talent agency in Universal City, recalls that in the early days of the strike she sunk into a "sky is falling" state of panic as wide swaths of the industry were laid off and the town appeared to be shutting down. But then Dorr realized that "for such a time as this, I was ordained to minister to these people."
Thus, along with writer/showrunner John Tinker (Judging Amy, The Practice), writer John Wierick (The Matthew Shepherd Story), writer Barbara Nicolosi, and Karen Covell (founder of Hollywood Prayer Network), Dorr made plans to create a "safe spot where the two sides could come together without demonizing the other." The result was a series of weekly gatherings that began January 25 and will continue until the strike concludes.
Thankfully, the three-month-old strike finally does appear to be nearing an end. Dorr and others cite industry rumors that the strike will likely end before the Feb. 24 Academy Awards—very good news for a town that has suffered immensely because of it.
"Every day that goes by it gets a little worse for the people affected," notes Dorr, adding that the dominance of the film and television industries in L.A. leaves few alternative job choices for the thousands now out of work. "People are grasping at straws trying to figure out what to do. Actors and writers are used to going long periods of time with no work, but they always have the hope of receiving a call. With the strike there is no hope, and without hope the town has fallen into a desperate state of, 'What to do now?'"
'Everyman's strike' hurts many
It's important to Dorr that Christians empathize with and care for the thousands of working people who are suffering, thus demystifying the impression of L.A. as a place dominated by the rich and famous. The writer's strike, Dorr insists, is wrongly perceived as being predominantly white collar.
"It's much more of an everyman's strike than people think. Only a small percentage of those on strike are what you would call rich. Our focus should not just be on the writers and producers, but on the thousands of below-the-line people [grips, gaffers, technicians, set designers, etc.] who are getting laid off."
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